


Shadows in a Mirror

by Yoshishisha



Category: Naruto
Genre: (I think?), Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M, Magical Realism, POV Hyuuga Neji
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-20 16:31:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21284747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoshishisha/pseuds/Yoshishisha
Summary: Neji hadn't expected to run a coffeeshop with his cousin. Neither had he expected to find himself becoming fond of a mysterious customer with shadows trailing after him.
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji/Sai
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Shadows in a Mirror

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChiaRoseKuro](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChiaRoseKuro/gifts).

> Written for the halloween gift exchange over on blackkat's discord server. This fic made me write two characters I've never written before so I hope their characterisation is good! It was loads of fun to write and I hope you enjoy :D

Neji had always been able to see more than he should.

“A gift,” his father called it as he lifted Neji into his arms and swayed with him to an unheard rhythm, the smile on his face almost blinding the boy with the strength of its joy.

“A curse,” his mother whispered into his hair as she braided it, and Neji didn’t have to look at her to hear the sadness in his voice for all that he didn’t understand it at the time.

It was only later that he understood, when his forehead burned as the seal was drawn upon his skin, as he fought back the tears under his cousin’s horrified gaze, as he stared into her eyes because she was the closest thing to an ally he had in this room his parents hadn’t been allowed in. They didn’t know about his superior sight, Neji having kept silent about it under his parent’s urging, but his talent had been obvious enough that they’d wanted to make sure he’d remain under his thumb.

He raged, and he raged, and he raged, and he channelled it all into bettering himself, into making sure he and his family would never have to suffer under the main branch. And as he grew, so did his sight. It started small at first, and not for everyone. The thread of smoke he could see curling gently around his father’s throat thickened and tightened over time, right until his father was taken by the people who’d tried to kidnapped Hinata. The smoke was dark then, streaked with red, and as Neji looked into his father’s reassuring eyes for the last time, the bleeding smoke told him he wouldn’t see the man alive again.

After that, he actively tried to avoid his sight. It wasn’t hard, for the sight had only reacted to very few people before. His father, with the smoke curling around his neck until blood was all he could see. His mother, with sparks dancing over her fingers and covering more and more of her body until she too was taken away to never be seen again. His cousin, whose horrified eyes from that first time he’d met her were all Neji could see when he looked at her, until he noticed the permanent iridescent tears flowing down her cheeks. He didn’t dare look at her for too long after that, and felt almost grateful that they didn’t have much reason to interact with each other. After all, both his parents had died shortly after their signs changed, and he didn’t know what he would do if that also happened to his too sensitive cousin.

* * *

That had to be the cause for his current situation.

He could barely remember the events that had led to his and Hinata’s departure from the compound. It had been shortly after his mother's disappearance, after weeks of driving himself to the ground with training in a bid to avoid attacking those he knew to be responsible. Of their departure itself however, the only thing that vividly stuck to his mind was the image of the tear tracks on his cousin’s face glowing red with rage, and more numerous than he’d ever seen before. He could almost remember them rising off her skin and reaching possessively for him as they packed, and left in the middle of the night.

He hadn’t known what to think that night, still couldn’t understand what had possessed him to follow her to another town, but it had been over a year now and the coffee shop she’d opened was still standing, so he couldn’t very well complain. Hinata’s tears usually glowed orange nowadays, a joyful, happy colour and Neji got used to finding faintly glowing droplets settled on his clothes and skin like dew in the morning. The sight of them never failed to raise his mood whenever nostalgia became too overbearing.

And for the first time in his life, he felt free, knowing that they wouldn’t find him here and that he was the one who controlled his destiny from now on. Neji was pulled out of his thought when the bell at the entrance tinkled as someone opened the door, and he finished arranging the candy display as he stood up.

"Welcome to-"

Neji's usual bored drawl tapered off as he raised his eyes to look at the man who'd just entered the coffee shop. He was rather handsome, although that wasn't what had caught Neji's attention (he didn't know what was wrong with this town, but the level of attractiveness seemed disproportionately high compared to what he'd though the average should be). No, instead of his looks, it was what his other sight revealed that kept Neji's gaze on the stranger.

Shadows. Or maybe not, what he could see anchored to the stranger was too solid, too real to be mere shadows. Ghosts, perhaps? Or spirits, apparitions? There were several of them, their presence somehow cloying with the way they curled over the man's form, and Neji wondered how the stranger could support the weight of them. 

A polite cough made Neji realise he was staring, and he finally focused on the man's face. And indeed, that explained some of it.

"What will you be ordering today," he asked automatically, his tone not even rising to form a question. He punched the numbers corresponding to the order into the till by reflex, unable to truly tear his gaze from the man's empty eyes, for all that the rest of his face folded into a facsimile of expression.

Sai, his name was, Neji realised as he scrawled the letter onto a cup for the stranger's coffee. He was quite lucky Hinata was there, because she was the one who took over the customer interaction as he retreated behind the counter to prepare the drink. He could hear the customer speaking with her, and yet he still felt observed... He raised his eyes surreptitiously to survey his surroundings, and there it was...

There was a shadow on the wall over the coffeemaker, observing him. It didn't have a face. There were no eyes for Neji to gaze into, no indication that the shadow was even facing him, and yet Neji knew... It was observing him. And the weight of that gaze didn't leave until Sai made his way out, with a last flash of that empty smile of his that made Neji shudder down to his very bones.

It wasn't until the last of the shadows had left that Neji felt he could breathe freely again. This was the first person his sight had manifested for since he'd left the compound, and for that, he knew he would cross the man's path again.

* * *

Sai's first visit wasn't his last, far from it. He didn't come in every day, but a week passed, and then two. By the end of the month, Neji was almost certain he'd need more than two hands to count the amount of times he'd seen Sai since his first visit, and it had thankfully gotten less unnerving.

"Are you aware your shop is a health hazard?" Sai asked, head tilted with that close-mouthed smile and those half-lidded eyes Neji had learned meant that Sai knew he was being offensive, but simply didn't care to censor himself. Those eyes weren’t as empty anymore though, more and more life being infused in them with each visit to the coffee shop.

"Friendly reminder, that your coffee might become a health hazard if you do not pay careful attention to your next words," Neji answered, punching in the man's usual order. Try as he might though, he couldn't manage to infuse the hostility he'd sustained for their first few meetings, when he'd thought Sai was being mocking rather than socially incompetent.

Instead of growing weary, Sai's smile widened the slightest bit, and he tilted his head to the other side, eyes closing even more. At this point, Neji was almost sure the other man was being facetious when he blatantly displayed his emotions like that.

"Oh, I'm not questioning your hygienic standards," Sai assured in his usual monotone. Neji could have almost thought he was sincere if it wasn't for the amused air wafting out of the shadows that surrounded the other. They were usually an accurate indicator of Sai’s mood, and though they didn’t seem able to emit any sound, Neji was sure he would have heard tittering laughter had it been in their ability to do so.

That, and the shadow that had observed Neji that first time was currently sprawled over the counter, smoky tendrils tugging at Neji's hair like a fascinated cat.

Sai leaned slightly forward, mirrored by the myriad of shadows surrounding him. "I'm simply worried for the health of your customers," Sai said almost earnestly, gesturing to the rest of the coffee shop with an arm that emphasized the current utter lack of customers. No sane soul went to a coffee shop that doubled as a candy store at 6:30 in the morning after all, and Neji tried to affix an expression to his face that would express exactly how useful he found Sai’s gesture to be.

"Your other customers, the ones that don’t wait outside the door for you to open up," Sai clarified, presumably now well used to reading Neji's expressions. "Giving them both caffeine and their heart's supply of candy? You are obviously trying to send them to an early grave."

Neji... didn't have an immediate reply for that. He blinked, once, twice, under Sai's blank gaze, and then felt his lips stretch into a bemused smile despite himself. He could faintly hear Hinata's laughter from the other side of the coffee shop, where she was wiping down a table, but most of his attention was on Sai and the shadow that had finally stopped tugging at his hair to listen to his reply.

"Maybe I'm just trying to bring you more company," Neji replied, handing Sai back his change. "Just in case there aren't enough people in this world of shadows you come from."

Neji had turned to prepare Sai's drink and thus couldn't see the other man's expression to his strange reply. The reaction of the shadow that had been attached to him for a while was telling however. It froze, and shrunk on itself, prompting Neji to turn around just in time to catch the last of Sai's expression before it was wiped clean.

There was fear on that face. A fear of what, Neji couldn't tell, but it was a fear of something he couldn't quite fathom. It only lasted for a moment, but Neji couldn’t help but wonder what else Sai usually masked under that placid expression of his.

* * *

Sai didn't show for a while after that. A week passed without his appearance, then two, and Neji wondered what it was about his last comment that had spooked the man he'd been becoming tentative friends with. 

He bit his lip and pretended he couldn't see his cousin's worried gaze as he thought about it. Had it been the mention of shadows? Could Sai have possibly been aware of them all along? Except that that didn't make sense, Neji thought as he reviewed their interactions. There was no way for Sai to have a good enough poker face to avoid reacting when one of his shadows behaved like a cat starved for affection next to Neji.

But if it wasn't that then what? Neji wasn't happy to realise that he had absolutely no idea. For all that he and Sai had become tentative friends, they hadn't really pried into each other's pasts all that much. He knew nothing about Sai, nothing at all aside from his personality and the fact that he was haunted by shadows he couldn't seem to shake. But then again, Sai knew nothing about Neji aside from the fact that he made a mean cup of coffee...

Neji sighed and began putting away their wares as the last of the customers left. This marked the end of the second week since Sai had shown his face in the coffee shop for the last time, and Neji was beginning to think they wouldn't see him again.

The sound of the front door slamming made Neji startled and he turned around to see who had dared to enter the shop barely two minutes before closing time. The tongue lashing he'd been prepared to give died on his tongue as he turned around.

The shadows around Sai nearly obscured him from sight, animated as they were, and they only parted when Sai was about two feet from Neji. The man was disheveled, which made for a distracting sight as Neji had never seen him with a single hair out of place. His face was flushed with exertion, he was panting, and Neji could do nothing but stare at those eyes lit by an inner fire.

Sai had never looked more alive, and the sight of him took Neji's breath away.

A big object was shoved into Neji's hands, and he lowered his gaze to see... A pumpkin?

Sai began speaking before Neji could voice his confusion. "It's Halloween," he said, which explained absolutely nothing, no matter how Neji thought about it.

"I've been told it's customary to make a socially significant gift when engaging in a new relationship," he continued as Neji felt his eyes widen. "Flowers and chocolate are customary for Valentine's day, and the next holiday with customary gift-giving is Christmas, which is too far away for me to wait until then to change the parameters of our relationship. As such, I-"

Neji cut him off. "Are you trying to ask me out?" he asked incredulously. "With a pumpkin?"

"It looks like you," Sai replied, which would have been incredibly insulting if he hadn't also turned the pumpkin so Neji could see its carved face. 

And to be fair, it did. Sai had even gone as far as carving the headband Neji usually wore to hide his cursed seal, as well as the way his hair fell around his face. Neji felt himself copy the bemused smile carved across the pumpkin's face as he raised his eyes to Sai's own. The shadows that usually accompanied the man were forming what could reasonably be called a heart behind Sai, and Neji couldn't help but find it endearing. 

"Alright," Neji agreed, letting his smile grow as he watched the relief spread on Sai's face. He could see himself dating this disaster of a human being he couldn't wait to find out more about. "For your information however, flowers are romantic gifts no matter the occasion. And pumpkins-" He couldn't help but chuckle as he glanced down at his gift again. "I'm almost certain this is the first time one's ever been given with romantic intention."

**Author's Note:**

> I saw shadows on there and immediately thought about Sai being haunted by the shadows of those he killed, and I decided to have Neji own a candy/coffee shop with Hinata because why not? I tried to leave incorporate enough mystery to be interesting though it shouldn't impede the flow of the story, so I hope you liked it!  
Also, something that doesn't show up in this story but I did consider is that Sai used to be in an assassination squad but is now retired, Gaara almost showed up and would've been a serial killer who trails bloody footsteps that would only be visible to Neji's sight, and if Naruto showed up he'd be a foxboy with ears and tail and whiskers only Neji could see (he'd have to restrain himself not to play with them tho).


End file.
